I agree with those who say that the Russian Government
and people will never accept defeat. Their resources are still overwhelm- ing; their courage remains superb ; the hatred which the Germans have aroused is as a furnace which cannot easily be quenched. The danger is rather that Hitler, if he fails to achieve a decision by September, may cut his losses and admit that, in so far as the Eastern front is concerned, it is Russia who has gained the victory. It is irksome to say these things, since in the present public mood they may be misinterpreted. Such is the state of public enthusiasm that the gentlest drop of caution hisses horribly as if it had fallen upon molten metal. I shall be accused, I suppose, of displaying an anti-Communist bias. I have no such bias and I have always wished, both that the Soviet experiment should have a fair opportunity of passing through difficulty into success, and that our own people should have more occasion to study the practical working of that experiment first hand. If it were physically possible I should much like today to see a group of Soviet foremen working in British factories and a group of British foremen working in Russian factories. My purpose is certainly not to presage dis- appointment or to criticise a gigantic social experiment. All I regret is that so many of my countrymen should have put all the eggs of their war-mindedness into the Russian basket. It is a splendid basket, a sturdy basket, a basket which may well bring all our eggs to market. But it is not the only basket. There is our own little basket, which has proved both taut and tough, and of which we ought to be prouder than we are. And there is the American basket, strong, expansive and capacious, which could and should house many, many millions of eggs.
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